Exxon Mobil Corporation announced on Friday, July 27, its estimated second quarter 2018 earnings of $4 billion, or $0.92 per share assuming dilution, compared with $3.4 billion a year earlier. Guyana continues to play a key role in pushing the company’s aggressive growth plans.

Cash flow from operations and asset sales was $8.1 billion, including proceeds associated with asset sales of $307 million. During the quarter, the corporation distributed $3.5 billion in dividends to shareholders. Capital and exploration expenditures were $6.6 billion, up 69 percent from the prior year, reflecting key investments in Brazil, the U.S. Permian Basin and Indonesia.

Oil-equivalent production was 3.6 million barrels per day, down 7 percent from the second quarter of 2017. Excluding entitlement effects and divestments, liquids production increased as growth in the Permian and Bakken in the U.S. and Hebron in Canada more than offset decline and higher downtime driven by scheduled maintenance. Natural gas volumes decreased 10 percent, excluding entitlement effects and divestments, largely due to a continuing shift in U.S. unconventional development from dry gas to liquids and to downtime in Qatar, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

“Key projects in Guyana, the U.S. Permian Basin, Brazil, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea are positioning us well to meet the objectives we outlined in our long-term earnings growth plans. The high quality of these resources, combined with our strengths in project execution and innovation, will generate strong value over time,” said Darren W. Woods, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

“Second quarter results were primarily impacted by significant scheduled maintenance undertaken to support operational integrity. In addition, while we were pleased with the return of full production following the PNG earthquake, extended recoveries from first quarter operational incidents in the Downstream were disappointing. However, good progress was made during the second quarter in fully recovering from these incidents,” he added.

ExxonMobil announced its eighth oil discovery offshore Guyana at the Longtail-1 well on June 20, creating the potential for additional resource development in the southeast area of the Stabroek Block. The Stena Carron encountered approximately 256 feet (78 meters) of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone.

The company continued to rapidly advance the Liza Phase 1 project with the start of development drilling offshore Guyana. Development drilling began in May for the first of 17 wells planned for Phase 1, laying the foundation for production startup in 2020. The company and its co-venturers have so far discovered estimated recoverable resources of more than 4 billion oil-equivalent barrels on the Stabroek Block.